Develop Reference

How do e-commerce websites integrate with ERP systems?

How does e-commerce usually handle integrations with ERP software?
We are working on a project for a client, who previously planned to use an ERP system that had a REST API.
This API allowed us to:
Place orders
Inform the ERP if the order was paid for
Get order status
Get all of the items available
Check item availability
Get user data
That would allow us to build a fairly complex online store with a lot of features.
Now the client wants to use another ERP system:
http://www.netsuite.com/portal/platform.shtml
I researched it, and the difficulty of integration surprised me. No REST API, some weird SOAP protocol to communicate with the system, and you have to write a lot of logic using SuiteScript. A whole new, different programming language just to build an integration with an online store? Why not just give developers access to an API to place orders and fetch items? And there are absolutely no docs available online for the thing. People on forums are saying that the system lacks in documentation and one has figure it out himself, along the way.
Magento and Shopify integration is done by third parties and looks dodgy. Same thing with SAP ERP. Am I missing something? Why is such a basic thing as a REST API for e-commerce not available for those systems?
Why develop using Python Django for the back-end and using React.js for the frontend. What is the right way to integrate them with the ERP system?

NetSuite does have a REST API and webservices. "you have to write a lot of logic using SuiteScript" is true but it's just JavaScript and there are many talented developers out there.
I'm not sure there is a "right way" but there are many ways to connect to the data.
My suggestion would be to contact a partner company, such as SWK Technologies. http://swktech.com

NetSuite has two main APIs, SuiteTalk and SuiteScript.
SuiteTalk is the Web Services API, which is SOAP based and allows for pulling data from and updating NetSuite. The SuiteScript API is JavaScript based and allows you to customize accounts and export data at the appropriate event during your business process. The term "SuiteCloud" encompasses all APIs and integration tools.
As for documentation, this is mostly only available to clients and partners. If you have a client who provides you with access to their account, you will gain access to the NetSuite Help Center and all relevant documentation.
Your options for integrating with the e-commerce platform depends on the exact platform. This ranges from Webhooks to HTTP requests.

You can't say NetSuite is delimiting developers in any way. It depends on how you look at it. As I see it, NetSuite provides two main method for developers - SuiteTalk and SuiteScript.By this, developer can create his/her own API, define what kind of acces those API should have.
SuiteTalk is SOAP based.
I would suggest using SuiteScript to create your own API using either NS RESTlet or NS Suitelet.
They have the feature for External URL. By sending request to this external URL you can trigger your own custom functions written on the SuiteScript. By SuiteScript, you can create your own API and define your own function. Ie, developer is in full control.
The only problem I see with NetSuite is its higher barrier for entry. There is no way you can access NetSuite Help Centre without having a Client/Partner/Test account.
But obviously, those who need some kind of integration with NetSuite have NS account.

What python library I should use for facebook OAuth and OpenGraph

I have designed a Facebook application and need to add OAuth, Open Graph for complete functionality. Considering that I know nothing about Open Graph and little JS, I'd like to use a small wrap-up (python lib) which will provide the those features..
I searched over Google, stackoverflow and found few projects which provide some cool features but I am unable to choose..
python libs:
django-social-auth
fandjango
facepy
pyFacebook - I think this doesn't offer OAuth.
I also use Google Data API in my project. So, the better option would be django-social-auth but I am not sure if I can do Open Graph with it..
Can anyone tell me what is the best, maintained, good lib?
(Please do mention if its not in the above list)

django-social-auth is really great if you want to build a website that allows users to log in with Facebook, but if you're building an application on Facebook.com you probably want to use something like fandjango. Either way, you will need a different kind of library (like, say, facepy) to interact with Facebook's API once you've retrieved an access token from the user.
Full disclosure: I am the author of fandjango and facepy.

I would highly suggest django-social-auth. Any library than can parse JSON will support Open Graph as FQL and Graph API data can all be retrieved from Facebook's API (REST).
Good luck!

How to implement excel BDP() function with Bloomberg API?

I'm not familiar with either BDP() or api. I'm just wondering if there is any easy and elegant way to implement this excel function with Bloomberg API? Thanks! (any language is fine although python is preferred)

What function? BDP is the api they provide to access data. I think the easiest solution for you to is to msg the helpdesk(hit the help key twice) and ask them for the api documentation. Its somewhere in bloomberg but I am not at my terminal right now, but the helpdesk not only can give you the documentation they can also show you code samples. You can also ask to speak to an API specialist, who can help you even more.
Most of the scripts my ex-employers fund were using python, so it def works.

For python, I have started a project to provide access to the bloomberg desktop api. Check it out and help out if you have some code - https://github.com/bpsmith/pybbg.

C2DM Python framework

I need to implement client notification for android and I thought to use c2dm.
Is there any framework for c2dm in python ? Does anybody have experience with server side c2dm in python ?

I don't know of an existing library, but I also recently searched how to send notifications to my droid using Python, and I came throuht this blog post which explains how C2DM works and gives a sample Python implementation. I didn't test it yet, but I believe it could be useful as a base at least.
EDIT:
There is also this site which offers the ability to send C2DM notifications to your droid via their servers using an API, and there's even a python library to access it more easily.
EDIT 2:
To use NotifyMyAndroid, it seems you have to install their software on your phone (of I didn't understand how it works ^^)

Python (Django) Shopify API Client -- For a Beginner

I have a requirement to build a client for Shopify's API, building it in Python & Django.
I've never done it before and so I'm wondering if someone might advise on a good starting point for the kinds of patterns and techniques needed to get a job like this done.
Here's a link to the Shopify API reference
Thanks.

Your question is somewhat open-ended, but if you're new to Python or API programming, then you should get a feel for how to do network programming in Python, using either the urllib2 or httplib modules that come with more recent versions of Python. Learn how to initiate a request for a page and read the response into a file.
Here is an overview of the httplib module in Python documentation:
http://docs.python.org/library/httplib.html
After you've managed to make page requests using the GET HTTP verb, learn about how to make POST requests and how to add headers, like Content-Type, to your request. When communicating with most APIs, you need to be able to send these.
The next step would be to get familiar with the XML standard and how XML documents are constructed. Then, play around with different XML libraries in Python. There are several, but I've always used xml.dom.minidom module. In order to talk to an API, you'll probably need to know to create XML documents (to include in your requests) and how to parse content out of them. (to make use of the API's responses) The minidom module allows a developer to do both of these. For your reference:
http://docs.python.org/library/xml.dom.minidom.html
Your final solution will likely put both of these together, where you create an XML document, submit it as content to the appropriate Shopify REST API URL, and then have your application deal with the XML response the API sends back to you.
If you're sending any sensitive data, be sure to use HTTPS over port 443, and NOT HTTP over port 80.

I have been working on a project for the last few months using Python and Django integrating with Shopify, built on Google App Engine.
Shopify has a valuable wiki resource, http://wiki.shopify.com/Using_the_shopify_python_api. This is what I used to get a good handle of the Shopify Python API that was mentioned, https://github.com/Shopify/shopify_python_api.
It will really depend on what you are building, but these are good resources to get you started. Also, understanding the Shopify API will help when using the Python API for Shopify.

Shopify has now released a Python API client: https://github.com/Shopify/shopify_python_api

I think you can find some inspiration by taking a look at this:
http://bitbucket.org/jespern/django-piston/wiki/Home
Although it is directly opposite what you want to do (Piston is for building APIs, and what you want is to use an API) it can give you some clues on common topics.
I could mention, of course, reading obvious sources like the Shopify developers forum:
http://forums.shopify.com/categories/9
But I guess you already had it in mind :)
Cheers,
H.